Jill Biden unveils a reimagined White House tour

By Betsy Klein, CNN

Washington (CNN) — First lady Dr. Jill Biden unveiled a reimagined public tour of the White House Monday aimed at making the People’s House more accessible, interactive and educational for visitors.

After a multimillion-dollar upgrade, visitors on public tours will now be able to walk inside the White House’s Vermeil Room, the Library and the China Room – which were previously roped off at the doorway – to see the rooms’ art and artifacts up-close. And the historic Diplomatic Reception Room is open to tours for the first time ever, highlighting its history as the site of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s radio “fireside chats.”

The tour route has also been bolstered with new “reader rails” with detailed information about each room, including tactile features for viewers to see and touch. For example, in the Blue Room, which features the gilded French Bellangé suite of furniture, visitors can touch a replica of the Bellangé trim and upholstery.

As visitors walk along the East Colonnade, previously static photo exhibits have been replaced with new, dynamic digital screens, showing relevant content from the White House archives – whatever the occasion. At the end of the hallway, there’s a new three-dimensional model of the White House and its architectural transformations over the years.

A new screen at the base of the Grand Staircase features rotating images of presidents standing in the same space: former President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at a congressional ball, former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at a holiday party, first daughter Tricia Nixon and Prince Charles during a state visit, and former President Lyndon Johnson escorting daughter Lynda to her wedding, among others.

The first lady and President Joe Biden have also joined the tour: Jill Biden welcomes visitors with a video at the East Wing entrance, and the president offers a video message inside the East Room.

More than 10,000 visitors tour the White House each week, and Jill Biden felt the tours’ previous iteration missed the opportunity to educate its guests of all ages.

“When Joe became president, I took a look at the public tour, which I’m told hasn’t seen any significant improvements in decades, and thought there has to be a way to reimagine this tour experience, add more educational content and story-telling, while also preserving and protecting its history. So, we did,” she said in a statement.

Biden said there’s more to “touch, hear, and see up close.”

The upgrades took two years to come to fruition in close coordination with the East Wing, the National Park Service, which oversees all improvements to the White House, the White House Historical Association, the White House curator’s office, and executive residence staff, as well as a new external partnership with the History Channel.

The History Channel made an approximately $5 million donation to the National Park Service for the overhaul, similar to its previous partnerships with the tours at Ellis Island and the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center.

With three months before a new president takes the oath of office, there are also plans in place to update the tour, with the History Channel set to film a new welcome video during the presidential transition and other regular upgrades expected.

“It’s the People’s House,” President Biden said at an event celebrating the new tours Sunday evening. “We’re just renters.”

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